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Hot Days Activities

What is the best thing to do when the weather is so sweltering outside?

For the life of me, I can't think of anything constructive other than hiding in an aircon space until the sun goes down. But even if I manage somehow to convert myself into a nocturnal creature, the rest of my people in my life won't be doing that anytime soon.

Imagine this: "Hi Boss, can I come in for work at 6.45PM or as soon as the sun sets?" That will almost guarantee an immediate dismissal.

So what are we to do about this heat? Maybe we could start cottage industry here for drying of fish, prawns, and the likes. Perfect sun and heat with zero rain.

While I am figuring something out here, I remember reading on The Straits Times or Sunday Times a long time ago that one of the best thing to do in such hot weather is to bake bread as the bread will rise rather quickly.

With that thought still in my head, I turned on my KitchenAid and churned out a dough in under ten minutes, washing included. Fine, I exaggerated, fifteen minutes. It is amazing how fast I can churn out a dough these days. I still continue to amaze myself each time I wrap a dough for the first rise.

Anyway, the recipe had called for a hour and a half for the first rise, but I had let it sit out for much much longer than that. Until when then, you ask? Well, until after my little princess got home from her dancing rehearsal and I have managed to settle down my frazzled mind, which by the way meant that the bread had sat for ... erm ... 7 hours? Well, it is nice to have bread rise quickly in our hot weather but the The Straits Times writer forgot to mention also that it would means a loaf that lacks flavour. So does 7 hours of sitting means a better dough? I can't say for certain that it taste better since I am not doing a side by side comparison, but all I can say is that with this mindset of breadmaking, it certainly makes more loaves of bread possible in my life.

If someone had told this to me years earlier, I would have scoffed that he/she knows nuts about baking bread. Well, now I know better, I think. But not quite as much as I would like though. Bread making is an art and a journey.

Oh, did I digress? Sorry. Breadmaking is all consuming at times.

Erm, we are suppose to talk about things to do on a hot day? Okay. Got it.

Prep ahead
Although salads needs minimal cooking, it involves lots of knife-work. Slicing, dicing, chopping all take time. But as I've mentioned earlier, most ingredients of a salad can be prepared in advance, but not all. Cut avocados will turn black, apples brown, and so forth. So if you are considering these items for your salad, either wait until just before serving to dice them up or leave them out. Th…

My motivation for looking into main course salad was born out of sheer laziness. I was looking for a one-dish meal (less plates) that requires minimal cooking (less pots/pans) and packs lots of veggies as well as being filling. No skimpy wimpy diet salads for this gal.

So if I have to put this into a checklist of evaluating a salad, it would probably look like this.

Salade Nicoise has all the ticks in the check-boxes. Everything in this salad can be made ahead of time. Right down to the proteins of eggs and fish (either canned tuna or leftover grilled salmon). Now, isn't this dish time friendly?

These are the first batch of blueberry scones from our new oven.I found some leftover buttermilk from previous pancake making session and also a bit of plain yogurt sitting around in the fridge.As I have said umpteen times here that I am the least creative person in the world, I just stuck to making what I know. And what I know is that scones and muffins can be made from any sort of dairy products. So I mixed the yogurt into the buttermilk and add the mixture into the dry ingredients.Voila!Airy, crumbly and tangy scones.Arghhh … this photo doesn’t do justice to the scones. I have, erm …. somehow, misplaced my big girl camera during the move. I am quite sure it is sitting somewhere around. (I hope!)Enjoying these for breakfasts and/or tea breaks is one of the best things I like during hectic days. Especially when it is toasty and with a big cup of tea.